High blood pressure is the leading risk factor for death worldwide, and Türkiye faces an especially urgent challenge. Despite being one of the most detectable and treatable conditions in modern medicine, hypertension remains dangerously undercontrolled across the country. Approximately 1 in every 4 deaths (23%) in Türkiye is attributed to high systolic blood pressure, and while awareness has risen to 55%, the control rate – the proportion of patients who actually manage to keep their blood pressure within healthy limits – sits at just 28%. This alarming gap between awareness and effective management represents both a public health crisis and a significant opportunity. To address it, Menarini Türkiye launched CASETALK, the first AI-powered project in the field of hypertension in Türkiye: an initiative that has already earned the prestigious Golden Pulse “Jury Special Award”.
A New Approach to Medical Education
CASETALK represents a paradigm shift in how physicians learn about hypertension management. Moving decisively away from conventional, lecture-based formats, the project offers a dynamic, AI-driven simulation experience designed to help doctors engage more deeply with treatment algorithms by working through realistic, patient-specific scenarios. Its overarching goal is to increase hypertension awareness, improve control rates, and overcome persistent barriers such as pill burden through hands-on, experiential learning.
The platform was built on a robust AI engine trained with over 1,500 questions and answers spanning 4 distinct patient profiles, and was deployed across 8 major cities in Türkiye, engaging 283 physicians in immersive clinical sessions.
Rather than sitting through passive lectures, participating doctors used their own mobile devices to diagnose and treat virtual patients in real time. They took a full anamnesis, ordered laboratory tests with instant results, and prescribed treatments mirroring the decision-making process of an actual clinical consultation. Every choice was analyzed on the spot by the AI engine, while a moderator – a Key Opinion Leader (KOL) – reviewed anonymous, aggregate reports and provided immediate guidance on disease management. This created a powerful feedback loop: physicians could see how their decisions compared to best practices and peer choices, gaining actionable insights during the session itself. Perhaps most remarkably, questions that went unanswered or that revealed knowledge gaps were fed back into the system, making the platform progressively smarter with each event and ensuring that every session was better than the last.
The impact of CASETALK has been recognized at the highest level of the Turkish pharmaceutical industry: the project received the “Jury Special Award” at the Golden Pulse Awards, validating its innovative blend of medical education and strategic engagement.
More than an award-winning initiative, CASETALK is a proof of concept for the future of physician engagement. By putting AI at the service of personalized, experiential learning, Menarini Türkiye has demonstrated that technology can be a powerful catalyst for improving patient outcomes at scale.
As hypertension continues to pose a major public health challenge in Türkiye and beyond, initiatives like CASETALK point the way toward a more interactive, data-driven, and ultimately more effective approach to closing the gap between diagnosis and control.
